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Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins

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Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins

#161

Post by will_brown »

I have not seen a single comment regarding, what I think is the true/inherent value of Foursquare. Everyone is pointing out that they failed to monetize...but, just look at all the other billion dollar acquisitions on start-ups/companies that have not monetized.

Anyhow...If I were to relate Foursquare and its value to any recent acquisition it would be to Waze. Waze does have some degree of ads, but going out on a limb, I would venture to guess they are pretty negligible. Others may argue that Waze has all this valuable crowd sourced traffic data, well I don't think that data has been or will be monetized either. So what is the value of Waze that justifies a >$1B acquisition? In my estimation, it is the same thing as Foursquare (if not now, at one point should have had), due to their user base and the nature of the app, by default both Waze and Foursquare are cartographers and there is real money/value in that, and I am surprised of >100 comments I didn't see one mentioning that.

Because of the cost involved, there are only a handful of true map makers in the World, and from what I can tell they are all Billion dollar + companies. Waze (and Foursquare) both found novel ways to propel themselves into the space...and on the backs of their users, not with the traditional investment of satellites/GPS technology. If anyone anywhere creates an App that has millions of users who are updating geocentric data in real time from their own users and not paying for this data...I wouldn't be to concerned with ads for its own sake, just losing my user base.

Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins

#162

Post by wwosik »

timr wrote: post #149
pappyo wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to talk to small business owners in any service industry that isn't restauranting. Those owners would consider the business practices of Yelp and (I guess) Foursquare thuggish. Two years ago I sat in on a call with a Yelp rep with a former employer of mine (small business connected to the real estate industry). The Yelp rep said "Advertising through Yelp will almost instantly increase you rating." My employe…

See, this illustrates the fallacy of the "yelp extortion" argument: what the rep said was totally clear -- when you advertise, your rating gets better. It did not imply that your rating gets better because they'll change it. That was your leap to an unsupported conclusion. Moreover, assuming that s/he did say what you're quoting, you have to put it in context: Yelp employs hundreds (if not thousands now) of telephone…

Yes, and

    "That's a nice kid you have. It would be really pity if something happened to him, right?"
is a valid worry expressed over someone's child isn't it.

Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins

#163

Post by lectrick »

Certainly one of the dumbest moves I've seen by an app in a long time. I was a loyal checker-inner, though, and still use Swarm, although other people keep asking me "people still use Foursquare?"

I like the recommendations it can give me once I tell it what I like, also its "places I want to go to" type lists.

Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins

#164

Post by emodendroket »

jdminhbg wrote: post #159
emodendroket wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your friends don't really sound like a representative sample. Most people complain about Facebook on privacy but don't modify their behavior in any way.

There's a difference between modifying their current behavior and going out of their way to give FB more data without any real benefit. I don't think FB checkins have been super successful, have they?

I see plenty of them on my feed. I'm not sure that "success" has to be measured the same way in Facebook's case since they offer quite a few different things to do, and not just checkins.

Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins

#165

Post by timr »

wwosik wrote: post #162
timr wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See, this illustrates the fallacy of the "yelp extortion" argument: what the rep said was totally clear -- when you advertise, your rating gets better. It did not imply that your rating gets better because they'll change it. That was your leap to an unsupported conclusion. Moreover, assuming that s/he did say what you're quoting, you have to put it in context: Yelp employs hundreds (if not thousands now) of telephone…

Yes, and "That's a nice kid you have. It would be really pity if something happened to him, right?" is a valid worry expressed over someone's child isn't it.

Make the comparison valid:

"Children who buy our product end up smarter and healthier than those who don't."

...and now it's just marketing. The rep didn't say that the rating would get worse if you don't buy an ad, just that it gets better if you do.

Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins

#166

Post by zacharyz »

nailer wrote: post #69
randomsearch wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> FourSquare launched Swarm before their pivot Not really, it was part of their pivot. I think that was pretty clear at the time.

Yes, really. Events, in order: 1. Swarm released 2. New 4sq released The article talks about 2 then 1, implying incorrectly that new 4sq was released, people got pissed off, then swarm was released. I don't think anybody is arguing that it wasn't part of the pivot. I specifically am calling them out for implying 4sq was reacting to users who were pissed off with their new app, when their new app wasn't yet released.…

I think you are confusing the initial statement. Foursquare perceived users as "frustrated" before Swarm because of the conflation of reviews and check-ins with in a single app. The pivot was to create a new app and separate the concerns.

Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins

#167

Post by jamiesonbecker »

gdilla wrote: post #146
bandrami wrote: post #9

I'm still astounded by this. They had a #&$%ing verb . That is the #&$%ing gold standard of presence. "I'm going to foursquare this." I actually heard real human beings say this. If your app name has become a verb the last thing you ever want to do is refocus . If you want to go to a ratings app like they apparently did (because... uh... that's not a saturated space or anything?...) then you make another app and leav…

True, they should have made Swarm their new Yelp clone or whatever their curated travel guide strategy was, instead of gouging the flagship app that had popularized the check-in for 10s of millions of active users. It was such a departure and made no sense branding wise. I mean I guess they wanted to associate their company name with the money making version of their app (if this strategy worked out) but still... it…

Right. They could have simply launched a new app that centralized the review data that they'd already gathered from 4sq and continued to populate this new app w/ the valuable data from 4sq, and then used the two apps to feed each other. That would have been cool and not irritated their most loyal users. Also, Brand extension almost never works: http://amzn.to/1D2J4c8

I might have even installed it. ;)

Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins

#168

Post by __david__ »

timr wrote: post #165
wwosik wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and "That's a nice kid you have. It would be really pity if something happened to him, right?" is a valid worry expressed over someone's child isn't it.

Make the comparison valid: "Children who buy our product end up smarter and healthier than those who don't." ...and now it's just marketing. The rep didn't say that the rating would get worse if you don't buy an ad, just that it gets better if you do.

It's more like a school that sells school pride t-shirts saying, "children who purchase our t-shirts and wear them to school end up with better grades."

"What? No, not because the teachers favor them and inflate their grades, but because they end up with more school pride and do better in class!" Wink wink, nudge nudge.

Re: Graph of Foursquare's Popularity After Removing Check-Ins

#170

Post by timr »

__david__ wrote: post #168
timr wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Make the comparison valid: "Children who buy our product end up smarter and healthier than those who don't." ...and now it's just marketing. The rep didn't say that the rating would get worse if you don't buy an ad, just that it gets better if you do.

It's more like a school that sells school pride t-shirts saying, "children who purchase our t-shirts and wear them to school end up with better grades." "What? No, not because the teachers favor them and inflate their grades, but because they end up with more school pride and do better in class!" Wink wink, nudge nudge.

That's a conspiracy theory, not evidence. But if you're suggesting that's what's behind the extortion claims, I wholeheartedly agree.
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